This may seem obvious, but I was looking at how startups become large successful companies and I realised there is not a one size fits all approach or a handbook to growing a startup, ofcouse I’ve heard this before but it didn’t properly click until I read up on how Brian Acton and Jan Koum founders of Whatsapp, would continuously update the apps name in the Appstore which would push them to the top of the “What’s New” list on the Appstore and they did this until Apple patched the glitch but they had already gained thousands of users.
To me this shows you have to game the system and really do what you can to push your idea if you truly believe in it, there are other stories like this such as Uber and lobbying or with Tinder and the founders going to college parties to promote their product.
Having an idea and putting a Google ad to promote it or writing a blog to draw awareness is good, but seeing how some of these founders achieved success by going the extra mile and sometimes doing the extreme, doesn’t give their target audience a choice to not be aware of their existence, putting the product right in their face.
To me there is no handbook to any success in business, nor any sure way to find a business idea that works. Learning stuff helps, but another entrepreneur‘s journey is always different from yours.
I feel like what it takes is more of a general understanding (business sense), a certain skill set (for example problem-solving abilities, also durability and stress resistance), business related principles and some metrics that are specific to the industry you’re in or the business model you want to use. These things are a must, but success is never guaranteed even if you have them. However if you don’t you are most likely going to fail.